Rivet setting guns are used extensively in industry. It used to be that most of these guns used multiple impact to set the rivet, but more and more these guns are of a single impact type as it is faster and less noisy. These single impact guns use a built in accumulator to obtain the volume of air required for a single impact, and they require considerable valving of one type or another to control the flow of air from the accumulator and to return the piston ram to a starting position.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,303,666 to Souter, a stream of compressed air is used to drive a piston ram to the starting position and start an accumulator control valve to move to an open position; while linkage from the moving valve opens up the working end of the gun to atmosphere; then compressed air from within the valve starts the ram on the drive stroke.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,960,067 to Osborne, a piston ram moves inside a cylinder and also along an axially located tube. Compressed air from within the tube drives the ram back to the starting position.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,039,034 to Wagner, air build up in an accumulator initiates pressure through a metering valve into the back side of a piston ram that is acting as a valve between a cylinder and the accumulator, and the pressure forces the piston ram forward to then be driven by air from the accumulator.